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RESEARCH INSTITUTE Tenth Annual Report IHqulJJLu^j^ CUudu, atwtord Urwwsfty Ltoranes L*p*. of S*»cW o<%c*oo6 C7S~T- Box _J2a /O Fol Z_3±_ Foi - Tlfle — MENTAL HEALTH RESEARCH INSTITUTE Tenth Annual Report Covering the period July 1, 1964 to June 30, 1965 MENTAL HEALTH RESEARCH INSTITUTE THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN TABLE OF CONTENTS Statement the Director 4 Institute Staff 84 The Research Program 7 Sources Support 90 Research in the Biological Sciences VV. Agranoff, (Bernard 'Fen Years 96 Coordinator) 9 The First Physiological Psychology 9 Findings in the Biological Sciences 101 Biochemistry II 114 Neurojjhy.siology 16 Findings in the Psychological Sciences Nemomorjjhology 21 Findings in the Societal Sciences 131 Research in the Psychological Sciences (Leonard Uhr, Findings in the Systems Sciences 137 Coordinator) 23 Psycholinguistics 23 Findings from the Schizojjhienia and Psychopharmacology PercejJtion, Learning, and Cognition 25 Project ■ ■ 148 Human Factors and Skills 36 Psychojjhai macology 37 Psychojjhysiology 38 Research in the Societal Sciences (Richard L. Meier, Coordinator) II Change and Development in Societies 11 Conflict Processes in Social Systems 12 International Political Systems 15 Research in the Systems Sciences (Merrill M. Flood, Coordinator) 16 Biological Systems 46 Psychological Systems 49 Social Systems 50 Information Processing Systems 52 Mathematics of General Systems 57 Other Institute Activities 60 The Teaching Program 60 Institute Services 65 Professional and Community Activities of the Stall 67 Institute Publications 69 Stake Publications, 1961-1965 70 Administrative Committees 84 2 3 of of tute have made important contributions, can provide new insights toward possible solutions to problems in many fields. Increasing acceptance of this viewpoint is now apparent among a number of STATEMENT OF THE DIRECTOR scientific and professional leaders in the mental health fields. ""Our third goal is the application of findings from the above years ago, a group of scientists from the University of Chicago work to the prevention, diagnosis, and cure of mental illness and Tencame to The University of Michigan to establish an interdis- mental retardation. The original plan for the development of the ciplinary institute in a medical school to carry out a broad program Institute formulated in 1955 provided that the biological, psycho- of basic research grounded on integrative theory in the behavioral logical, and systems science areas would be organized the sciences, directed toward developing procedures for the prevention societal sciences, next; and then the interdisciplinary and clinical and cure of mental illness. research areas. We are now in the latter phases of implementing this During the j^ast decade the Institute has grown from three scien- plan. The Clinical Research Coordination Area was established in tists and a secretary to a staff of 182 jjersons. Our building, which 1965 to serve as a bridge between the Institute and clinical pro- we occupied in late 1959, is already inadequate. Since 1960 our grams in other units of the Department of Psychiatry. We believe research activities have almost doubled. At present more than this will hasten the application of fundamental research findings forty major research projects are under way at the Institute, and to the tare of patients. Clinical investigations at the Institute several new ones are planned. Many hundreds of articles, and more have thus far been concerned with schizophrenia, mental retar- than thirty books, have resulted from research done here. Our dation, alcoholism, clinical pharmacology, and psychopharmacology. official publication, the journal Behavioral Science, has steadily We hope to extend these efforts to include controlled, objective increased in readership until it now has more than 3,700 subscribers investigations of techniques of psychodiagnosis, evaluations of proc- and is to be found in most of the world's major scholarly libraries. ess and possible outcomes of different methods of individual and The program developed since the Institute was established group psychotherapy, and various other aspects of biological psy- focuses clearly on three major objectives. Our first goal is the inte- chiatry. gration of the various disciplines in the physical, biological, and The form of coojjeration among natural scientists and behavior- social behavioral sciences into a unified body of knowledge. While al scientists, clinicians and nonclinicians, which has characterized no one will deny that man partakes of a social as well as a biological the Institute from the beginning has in recent years received many nature, there is a fundamental schism between the views of the forms of recognition. In 1961 the Commission on Mental nature Joint of man held by many jusychiatrists and social scientists on the Illness and Health jmblished a rejjort to the Congress making recom- one hand, and by neurologists and biological scientists on the other. mendations for national j>rograms to advance mental health. The This modern manifestation of the mind-body problem has serious mental health legislation of the Kennedy Administration was a practical consequences for the study and treatment of mental illness. direct outcome of this report. Staff members preparing this report The Institute represents one of the first attempts to reconcile these visited the Institute and investigated its program in detail. A prior- divergentpoints of view. ity recommendation of the was that interdisciplinary insti- Second, rejiort we carry out a program of basic research on (a) nervous tutes to do basic research in the behavioral sciences relevant to system structure and function in health and disease; (b) how infor- mental health should be encouraged. Our Institute was one of within mation is processed the living body and among human beings the first programs of this sort established in a state university medi- in health and disease; and (c) social structure and process, which cal school and emjjhasizing an integrative apjiroach to the study determine for norms acceptable behavior and are also imjiortant of man. Over the last ten years the Institute has on several occa- determinantsof psychopathology. sions been visited by scientists about to set up research programs The two fundamental concepts of information {processing and elsewhere and has served as one basis for their planning of buildings system organization permeate many of our research projects, in all and programs. the main areas of our program: psychological, biological, social, and Our journal Behavioral Science was the first interdisciplinary mathematical. The general systems approach to the conceptual inte- journal to be to research and theoretical work in all the sciences, devoted gration of the behavioral to which members of the Insti- behavioral sciences. Since 1956 other interdisciplinary journals have 5 V first; been founded, including the American Behavioral Scientist and the THE RESEARCH PROGRAM Journal of Psychiatric Research, reflecting the growing interest in such an interdisciplinary approach to the study of behavior. The Mental Health Research Institute, a unit of the Depart- The study of information jjrocessing in living systems has been ment of Psychiatry of The University of Michigan, conducts an inter- given priority support by the United States Public Health Service disciplinary basic research program directed toward discovering the and other government agencies, expansion in it being strongly sup- causes of mental illness and developing jjroceduresfor its prevention jjortedby various Congressional committees. and cure. The Institute's research activities fall into five major Recently stejjs have been taken by the American Psychiatric areas. Four of these are the scientific coordination areas: the bio- Association toward the formation of a committeeon general systems logical sciences, the jjsychological sciences, the systems sciences, theory. No memberof our staff took any initiativein this, but in the and the societal sciences. Two new scientific areas, the interdiscipli- first year of this activity more than fifty jjsychiatrists, some of them nary research area and the clinical research area, will be added leaders in the field, indicated an interest in jjarticijjating because during the coming year. The remainingarea includes general institu- they recognized jjotential in this ajjproach to problems of jjsychia- tional, technical, and administrative activities. All these efforts try and mental health, in which our Institute has jjioneered. fuse into a single concerted attack on fundamental jjroblems of A statement made in the Institute's Fifth Annual Rejjort is behavior and mental health. equally apjjrojjriate here. "We are jjroud of certain accomplish- The Biological Sciences Coordination Area emjjhasiz.es the study ments to date, disajjjjointed that some lines of research did not of the relations between the brain and behavior. These studies are develop, but hopeful of maintaining in the future an organization being pursued in our laboratories of physiological psychology, neu- staffed by the best scientists that can be obtained who are devoted romorjjhology, neurojjhysiology, and biochemistry. to basic research in the behavioral sciences and mental health Two long-term jjrojects in this area are concerned with the jjroblems." chemical or physical changes which accompany learning and mem- ory. A study of fixation of memory in the goldfish demonstrated that memory is fixed during a sjjecific time period immediately fol- lowing conditioning,
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